La Martyre, France — Brittany (folk belief)

Ankou: Brittany's Driver of the Dead

Folklore — not a documented case

In Breton belief every village has its Ankou: the last person to die each year is tasked with gathering the dead in a creaking cart for the year that follows. A stone figure of him stands at the church in La Martyre.

The Ankou is the personification of death in the folk belief of Brittany, in north-western France. He is usually depicted as a tall, gaunt man in a wide-brimmed hat, or as a skeleton holding a scythe. He is said to drive a creaking cart (in Breton “karrig an Ankou”) along the roads at night.

The stories in this section are folk tales and legends; they are not verified, real events and should not be confused with the rest of the archive.

From the same region